A Fully-Digital Variation-Tolerant Runtime Detector for PCB-Level Probing Attack in a 28-nm CMOS
Mao Li, Yunze Yang, Weifeng He, Sanu K. Mathew, Vivek K. De, Mingoo Seok · IEEE Solid-State Circuits Letters · 2023
This letter presents the first on-chip detector for monitoring a PCB-level probing attack in 28-nm CMOS based on a time-to-digital converter (TDC). It can detect a probing attempt caused by placing a probe with a loading capacitance as small as 2 pF, encompassing most commercial passive probes. It also does so robustly across 30-90oC and 0.8-0.9V, up to the data rate of 160 Mbps during runtime. The proposed detector is integrated with a general-purpose digital output cell. It consumes 3910 μm2 and 36.8 μW at 40 Mbps.